Tertullian, Against Marcion 43

It was also fitting that the Lord's burial be prophesied and that it already then deserved a blessing, since prophecy did not overlook the service of those women who gathered at the tomb before dawn with spices prepared. For Hosea speaks of this: they will seek my face; before dawn they will keep vigil toward me, saying, 'Let us go and turn back to the Lord, for he has torn and will heal us; he has struck and will have mercy on us; he will heal us after two days, and on the third day we will rise again' (Hosea). Who could refuse to believe this when considering those women, tossed between the pain of their present destitution, in which they seemed struck by the Lord, and the hope of his resurrection, by which they expected to be restored? But once his body was not found, his burial was removed from the midst, according to Isaiah (Isaiah). And two angels appeared there as well. Almost all of God's word, as was his custom, stands on two witnesses. Isaiah also foresaw the women returning from the tomb and from that vision of the angels: 'Come, women coming from the vision; come to announce the Lord's resurrection' (Isaiah).

It is a good thing, indeed, that the disciples' incredulity persisted to the very end, so that our defense would stand firm: Christ taught the disciples the Law, but he presented himself to them as no other than the prophets. For when two of them were traveling and the Lord joined them, not appearing as he truly was, but even disguising himself from their knowledge of what had happened, they said, 'We thought he was the redeemer of Israel, certainly his Christ -- that is, the Creator's.' So completely had he not presented another to them. Yet they did not think him to be of the Creator; and when he was thought to be the Creator's, he would not have endured that opinion about himself if he were not the one they thought he was. Otherwise, he would be the author of error and a falsifier of the truth against the title of the best God. But not even after the resurrection did he show himself to them as anyone other than the one they had thought him to be. Clearly he reproached them: 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that he spoke to you' (Luke 24:25). What had he spoken? That he was of another God? Prove it, and I will concede the point. Or did the angels say the same to the women: 'Remember what he told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered and crucified and rise on the third day' (Luke 24:6-7)? And why was it necessary, unless it was so written by God the Creator? Therefore he rebuked them as those scandalized by the passion alone and doubtful of the resurrection faith announced to them by women, through whom they had not believed him to be the one they had thought. So, what they had thought -- that is what he, wanting to be believed, confirmed himself to be: the Christ of the Creator, the Redeemer of Israel.

What could be clearer about the truth of the body? When they were hesitating, lest it be a phantom -- indeed, believing it to be a phantom -- he said, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that I myself am he; for a spirit does not have bones, as you see me having' (Luke 24:38-39). And Marcion, I believe, did not want to erase certain things contrary to himself from his gospel, so that from those he could erase but did not, those he did erase might either be denied or said to have been rightly erased; and he spares only those things which, by interpreting them differently rather than deleting them, he subverts. He wants the text to read: 'A spirit does not have bones, as you see me having' -- that is, not having bones, just as a spirit does not. What is the reason for this twisting, since he could have spoken simply: 'Because a spirit does not have bones, as you see me not having'? Why does he offer his hands and feet for inspection, limbs consisting of bones, if he had no bones? Why does he add, 'Know that I am he' -- whom, namely, they had known bodily before? Or if he was a phantom through and through, why did he rebuke them for believing it to be a phantom? Yet while they still did not believe, he asked for food, to show that he even had teeth. We have fulfilled, I think, the wager. We have shown the Christ of the Law -- in teachings, judgments, affections, senses, virtues, passions, and even resurrection -- to be none other than the Creator's. For by sending the apostles to preach to all nations, to go out into all the earth, he commanded their sound to go out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world, fulfilling the Psalm (Psalm 19:4). I pity you, Marcion; you have labored in vain. For Christ Jesus in your gospel is mine.